sunnuntai 15. lokakuuta 2017

So there's this Facebook group where each member posts a song and the other members review the songs and give them 1-5 points.

I participated with ' Where Am I? ' ( and gave it 4 points because I had to give it some points )
I made a video on YouTube about the reviews with parts of the instrumental + backing vocals version of ' Where Am I? '

The reviews in the video are in Finnish so here are the translations. At least I tried my best to translate. I hope it's correct. Idioms are sometimes hard to translate.

1. The beginning of the song is quite ethereal, I must say. Low tempo. The vocals are like sighs. This reminds me of Alice Cooper's weirdest and most obscure production from his alcoholic years.
I'd like to see the lyrics while I listen. This would give more that way. The words I can hear makes me think that the story in this is quite interesting. This gives me mental hospital vibes, like those Alice Cooper's songs do. I recommend to check out his album ' From the inside '
The production quality is good and the singer's voice is good. The negative part is that without knowing the story this music will vanish into background. Nothing in this makes you instantly think that it's a hit or a must-listen. 3/5 - J.H

2. The singing is really ethereal. The track has some ' True Detective ' spirit in it. It could be the title song for the series if the pronouncing of the lyrics would be more sharp. Now they feel distant. The efficient guitars making the song stronger don't give it added value but in time the power will blend into the song and the ending works better. The song is slow and long and it's not necessarily a good thing. The whistling definitely gives a good touch, I always like that. That gives more Wild West spirit to the sound that is already ' sandy '. The lyrics are hard to hear but they seem to be written with skill and they are artistic and poetic. 3,5/5 - K.H

3. TonyGirl is asking " Where Am I? " in her song and that's a good question to be asked every once in a while. This sounds like the music I've been listening to lately. It's alternative rock with other influences too. Sounds very perky and bright. And if you didn't already know, a whistle always works in music. It works in this song too. This is a very interesting new artist to me. Female vocals. I get a feeling like this almost takes my breath away. This goes well with fall and spring. When it gets cold, the ground freezes but there's no snow yet. Oh yes, I like the taste of this one. 4/5 - K.P

4. This instantly reminded me of the past decades. Dark rainy streets. This took me to my thoughts every once in a while but something in this irritated me. Maybe it's the singer's voice? ( probably ) and the backgrounds. The playing is good. Overall this left me cold. I could listen to this if it played on the radio but I wouldn't listen to it by purpose. I'll give credit to the whistle and the laid back atmosphere.
3/5 - V.L

5. At first this reminds me of Lana Del Rey and after that Tori Amos. The atmosphere is quite ethereal. The voice of the singer is nice and I could listen to this at some club. I wouldn't go to listen solely to this, it's not that much my type of music, but in between some rock songs this would go. 3,5/5 - K.A

6. The song is like a mystical and slowly progressive carpet* made of music. The interesting voice of the singer adds more mystical vibes. I can imagine hearing this song in a slowly progressive road movie or in a beer commercial. 3/5 - L.H

* the original comment used the word ' carpet ' and I tried and tried to find something that I think would be more describing in english. Wall of music? Wall of sound? Music mattress? Flagstone? Floating seaweed? Mass of music? Curtain of sounds? I also thought if it's supposed to be translated like " A mystical slowly moving carpet ride ". I don't know! I even googled this photo:

It's my song floating there!

My comment of these reviews:

I'm pleased that all the elements of the song were picked up: It's about hangover and the alcoholic era of Alice Cooper was mentioned as well as the beer commercial. Some complained about the articulation but it's okay because again, I meant to portray a character who's a bit lost. Maybe the alcoholic years wouldn't have come in mind if I had done sharp vocals.

It's meant to be a laid back, dreamy, ethereal song and that was mentioned.

Also it's an urban cowboy story about freedom. Wild west and True Detective were mentioned.
Road movie was mentioned.

You should be able to relax and go into your thoughts while listening to this and at least one of the listeners had that effect. Past decades were mentioned.

I'm surprised cold weather was mentioned, but then again I've always thought this is a song of departure when you sit in a bus or a car and it's raining. I think this is a summer song but it's nice to hear it's also a soundtrack of fall and spring.

lauantai 2. syyskuuta 2017

Wanna support the artist but you don't have money or you don't wanna spend money?

Here's how to help!

1. If you like the song show it by clicking Like, heart etc. If you really hate it, then use the angry emoji. You know how to do it. This actually really helps. People will more likely click the song link if they see others have done it too. Also, your friends at FB might see in your newsfeed you liked the song.

2. Share the song with your friends by sharing the status that has the song linked to it. If you can immediately think a few of your friends, tag them to the comments.

3. Ask your Facebook friends to Like the page by inviting them to like the page at Facebook ( I've done this to support my fave indies and my friends have accepted the request to Like )

It'll be nice to see if the number grows after this post

4. Comment the song. One word is enough, you don't have to be a poet to do it. If you hate the song, why not telling that too. Say: OMG, what a shitty song! That'll make other people curious and maybe some of them will like the song. You can also leave a comment to my wall. It can also be an emoji or a meme if you don't want to write. ( I like roses, btw. And puppies. And unicorns!!!! )

5. Tell your friends you like it. Ask them have they heard the song/artist and send them a link.
Directly straight to their inbox. But don't spam them. Think of a few friend's who could actually really like the song and send the link only once.

6. Follow the artist also at streaming services like Spotify and Deezer. You'll get notified when the artist releases a new song.

7. If the artist has a gig, go to their show and let others know you went.

8. Add the songs to your playlists so you don't forget them. If you have friends over, play the music and ask them casually: " Have you heard this artist? " They don't know what hit them. ;)

9. If you have a vlog or a blog, mention the artist or the song you like there or use the music as a background music in your video. If you have a fave vlogger who does reaction video's for music, suggest the song to them.

10. If you have Instagram for example, share the cover art of the song you like. Tag #tonygirl #tonygirlmusic #tonygirlofficial, songname etc and even a link to the song.

11. Ask radio stations to play the music. Copy and paste from here if you don't wanna spend time writing yourself:

Hi,

I'd like to hear more TonyGirl. Play ' Where Am I? ' or ' Whatever Happens ', please.

sunnuntai 20. elokuuta 2017

The lyrics for ' Where Am I? ' added here: Lyrics
They will open in a new window in case you wanna read them while reading the story behind them here:

The true story is yours

Don't read if you want to keep your own interpretation of it! Every song and every poem has a lot of meanings and every reader and listener will give them their own meaning. All the meanings are equally true! I've even found new meanings to my own lyrics when I've experienced more in life after writing them. So, it's stupid to argue what's the absolute true meaning of any fiction writing like lyrics or a poem.

Here's ( so far ) what ' Where Am I? ' is about to me, the writer.

How was the song born...?

First of all, I usually write lyrics and songs when I have a feeling that comes out of me. This time I wrote when I was told and decided to write so this process was totally different!

I was heading to my band's rehearsal room back in 2008 ( Halloween night to be exact ) to sleep after a costume party. The rehearsal room was at Suvilahti, where Flow Festival is these days.

I didn't know my bandmate ( at the time, we don't have a band anymore ) was there with his another band's member. They were ending their nightly rehearsal. M.Airikka who is the other composer of ' Where Am I? ' took his guitar and said to me: " Let's write a song! Here's the riff for us! " and then played the main riff of the song.

I then took a piece of paper and a pen ( oldschool! ) and went on a mattress to write.

We decided this should be an urban cowboy story!

M. Airikka recorded the guitar riff while I wrote the lyrics. Then I recorded the melody with the lyrics. I improvised the melody as I was singing and reading the lyrics on record.

After that a lot of changes has been made to the song and one day I'll make a video of the evolution of the song. But now it's not the time for that because I want to give space to the song like it is today. And this entry is not about production, this is about lyrics. And the lyrics have been the same all the time.

So that's how the song was born!

About the story behind the lyrics

Now be careful. If you read this and you lose the illusion that may ruin the song for you it'll be sad. :(

You must be absolutely sure you want to continue reading this.

So when I started to write the lyrics on the mattress, I soon understood what I used as the inspiration for the story. The lyrics come from my subconsciousness and they are often like a dream I try to understand later on.

The story behind the lyrics is... hangover. Not kidding!

Once, I woke up at someone's place and was extremely pleased ( for once, haha ) that I hadn't had sex with the person. I had slept with my clothes on. I left the place happily. I had a hangover. My hair was all messy. I didn't have sunglasses with me and my heel was broken. I had extremely short skirt and a party top on that had lots of bling bling. So I looked weird outside the house where it was a beautiful sunny day.

Sometimes the hangover you have is more like feeling tired or numb and you feel calm and kinda nice. Like you're floating. You're like a feather in the wind.
I had that kind of relaxing hangover going on but the sun was too bright. I felt I'm a free spirit and adventurous. You feel like dead but so alive!
That's a rare hangover. Usually it's just awful.

So, I stumbled out of that guy's house and saw this pastel colored world. The houses around me were all baby blue, light pink, light yellow... and I had absolutely no idea where the fuck I was! I was like " Where Am I...? "
It didn't even look like Finland to me. I wasn't sure if I was lost. I knew I was somewhere at Eastern Helsinki.

I walked uneasily and saw a fountain, some kids jumping rope. They looked at me in awe. I must've looked like a creature from underworld. I didn't belong there. I thought the pastel colors and the fountain and all that looked almost like a magic world. I almost waited a unicorn to appear. Or huge lollipop's dancing or something.

The sun was so bright it felt like it'd go right through me. I tried to cover my eyes and to walk at the same time but it didn't quite work.. There was these really wide stairs and I tried to climb them. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Took way too wide steps with my soar feet and heels.

Finally I saw McDonald's and realised I was at Vuosaari. ( And then I ate a hamburger and boringly went home )

So. Sadly, this is the story behind ' Where Am I? ' I coud've never imagined that months later I'd write a song based on that.

Then I added to the lyrics some moods from Tarantino movies, westerns, road movies and imagined an old blind indian who is wise and sees through everything. Maybe even to the future.

I also continued the story about a stranger who is just hanging around with no money, no connection to anyone around him/her/other and no battery left in mobile phone. Nothing. But the person in the song is happy with nothing. Like a stray getting what he/she/other gets. It's nice to be an outsider, watching people. It's a writer's must do, to observe.

Aaaand because I'm a woman ( genderfluid though ) this is about an independent woman who does what she wants, if she wants to get drunk and go to a stranger's house and find herself somewhere she don't know, then she will and won't be ashamed. More like refreshed!

Not that I courage people to go to stranger's houses. I wouldn't these days but when you're young and dumb you do stuff. You can get yourself killed or raped so be cautious. Never do what TonyGirl does.

So there's a reason why I don't wear pants on the cover! Haha. The underwear got lost somewhere...( I actually once lost my panties but that's another story... ). I'll write more about being naked on the cover later on.

I like to go to places alone though without getting involved with anyone.
And it's refreshing to get lost.

So the song is about FREEDOM.

It's about dancing in the rain!

About leaving to unknown.

About being humble and happy about small things like rain and a pint.

I love that kind of stuff.

It's about leaning on a window and daydreaming when it's raining outside. A car window maybe. A buss window?

It's about walking in the desert when it's hot with a cowboy hat on your head.

It's about adventures!

And it's about a nice melancholy mood that isn't actually sadness at all. More like a nostalgic feeling. Anything can happen.

I was all alone but didn't feel lonely

this was my story didn't need anybody

The road layed ahead, no boundaries

as far as my blind eyes could see

Soooo what do I think about the lyrics?

I waited for years to get this song done and I think the lyrics are the best I've wrote.

I like them because they are not typical and I like how there's a story with lots of scenes. I normally don't write like that. I like this part because it's a bit funny and it's not typical:

Someone came and asked if I wanna follow

at first I wasn't sure but then why not..?

And I like how there's two parts of the song in between and then it returns to the story, and that even earlier in the song there's mentioned that the character in the song have been standing in the rain so that's why the people at the pub stare at the person who's soaked:

I walked in with the one I followed

they all looked at me, it must've been the water

I sat down and got a pint

There was nothin' more I could've asked from life

Some decadence there alright. I'm not a big fan of decadence but here it's ok.

Pretty pleased with the rhymes.

' Murdering Lights ' and ' Whatever Happens ' are more simple compared to this one.

And I like the fact that the character in this song is fictional. This is not about my heart-break, about my depression or anything like that.

You might ask how I can say it's fictional when I've spent time telling that the song is based on me going out and having a hangover.

But the character in the song and the story is based on that but not about that literally.

lauantai 29. heinäkuuta 2017

Three more days to go! ' Where Am I ' will be released 1st of August 2017. Here are the samples of the song I posted earlier on YouTube. Remember to subscribe so you'll get a notification when I post a video on YouTube. :)

tiistai 2. toukokuuta 2017

This Spotlight interview was released a while ago at IndieMusicPeople.com but apparently I had linked it to FB but not here. Well, here it is in case you missed it! I also added a link to my frontpage banner so it's easy to find later on if you don't have the time to read it now.

maanantai 1. toukokuuta 2017

I got this condition called " Bell's palsy " and my face is paralyzed at the moment. Let's hope I'm one of the 95% who will recover completely. I took some art pictures of this condition to empower myself and to celebrate May Day. After that I got an idea to add those pics to ' Whatever Happens ' lyrics video I made today for therapy: I really need to believe I will survive and my face will be normal soon! I was also a bit pissed off and felt a bit sarcastic when I edited the video. It helped! :D

Hopefully you had better MayDay celebration than I did!

Well, here's the video. Hopefully you enjoy it:

I also posted to Instagram about this earlier. At first I was like I'm not gonna worry but now I'm a bit worried and tired about this. I need some peer support...Again.

lauantai 21. tammikuuta 2017

TonyGirl started releasing music in Halloween 2015, so the first full year active was the year 2016.Let's have a look at it!

Murdering Lights: Underneath the fridge

TonyGirl the chameleon started the year with androgynous style. Depressed hiding under a bridge half naked and cold in Valentines Day 2016 when the photoshoot for the 2nd single ' Murdering Lights ' took place at wintery Korso. Click here to see more
Later that year I got a reason to really be depressed again...

Call the gender police, some people got confused!

Kaaoszine Magazine reviewed ' Murdering Lights '

On Feb 28th Kaaoszine reviewed ' Murdering Lights ' : " The intro of the song manages to sound a bit like 3 Doors Down song ' Here without you ' but then it changes to something completely different. It's a low tempo song about depression. The song opened up the second time I listened to it. It's not for everyone, but when it finds it's audience it will work for sure. ", wrote Sanna Uusi-Rasi. Big thanks to Kaaoszine. This started the year nicely!

The Lady Voices Of Indie, Kayak Big 25 Chart and Golden Kayaks!

' Murdering Lights ' was released March 14th at Spotify, Deezer, iTunes etc. Eve Delvecchio found ' Murdering Lights ' from Facebook group that was one of the many SoundCloud artist groups I had linked stuff to ( can't remember which one of them ) and asked me to join IndieMusicPeople.com

So after thinking about it carefully I decided to live like I preach: " Whatever happens it's for the best.! " and uploaded both of my songs there.
At first and mostly ' Murdering Lights ' got all the attention there. It was the #1st on All Genres Chart and #1st on Kayak Big 25 Chart and got nice reviews: " Wow this is like Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins rolled into one. I could see this song as the backdrop of some film. I especially love the oohs at the end. There's nothing to criticize here, it was golden. ", wrote Bobby D.

" Epic in the true sense of the word. Sung with authority of Love but no harshness just pure power. Though depression is a hard topic, this song will get you through it. " - Heavy Rotation review

In September 14th 2016 also ' Whatever Happens ' rose to Kayak Big 25. What a nice surprise!
It climbed up to 2nd place and it's still on the chart after four months currently number #10.
I also got real excited when the song was 3# and Juliette Lewis had her song #1 that week.

Later in 2016, ' Murdering Lights ' was nominated at Golden Kayak Awards.

Thank you Eve, Scott and everyone else at IndieMusicPeople!Without you, there wouldn't be much to write about the year ' 16.

The Newswine article, Murdering Lights music video and the changes I had to make to my plans

The music video for ' Murdering Lights ' was released May 28th at YouTube. It got 2060 views in 2016. Let's make it at least 4000 this year, shall we...? Share the video with your friends at least once in 2017, please. ;)

Like we all know 2016 took a lot of musicians. He also was a musician, Intriga. He was doing a remix of ' Murdering Lights ' but didn't have the time.

Here's his last released song ' Coolness Maximiser ' if you're into goa/psytrance. And here's a song from his another project called Dirty Device. Memories. I wanted to link these here to give some respect to his work and for his memory I cherish in my heart.

So, back to business: I didn't have another song recorded so I had to apologize I had already told I'm going to release a song but couldn't. Then I tried my best to get a new song out that year but failed. The Rock Above Studio I work at had a huge renovation and it delayed everything. I've learned: Never ever tell you're gonna release anything if you're unsure you can. I hope you forgive me: I've been in a shock in a new situation and trying my best.

Hurrying up with some new vocals. You can't really hurry art.

Lazy ass musicians " working " ;)

But all in all, I think 2016 was a good 1st whole year for TonyGirl*.

*TonyGirl the music project, not Tony the person who was sad, of course...

I want to thank all the listeners, the followers at different social media platforms and all the people I worked with in 2016. Thanks for staying by my side! It means a lot! HUGE thanks! <3

With love, TonyGirl the chameleon who magically changed from androgynous to a desperate housewife. There's a reason for the change but I'll tell U more about it later. ;)